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Why do we have a Prayer Room?

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Why do we have a prayer room? Mata Amritanandamayi answers!
Most Indian homes have a prayer room or altar. A lamp is lit and the Lord worshipped each day. Other spiritual practices like japa - repetition of the Lord’s name, meditation, paaraayana - reading of the scriptures, prayers, and devotional singing etc are also done here. Special worship is done on auspicious occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, festivals and the like. Each member of the family - young or old - communes with and worships the Divine here.


The Lord is the entire creation. He is therefore the true owner of the house we live in too. The prayer room is the Master room of the house. We are the earthly occupants of His property. This notion rids us of false pride and possessiveness. The ideal attitude to take is to regard the Lord as the true owner of our homes and us as caretakers of His home. But if that is rather difficult, we could at least think of Him as a very welcome guest. Just as we would house an important guest in the best comfort, so too we felicitate the Lord’s presence in our homes by having a prayer room or altar, which is, at all times, kept clean and well-decorated.


Also the Lord is all pervading. To remind us that He resides in our homes with us, we have prayer rooms. Without the grace of the Lord, no task can be successfully or easily accomplished. We invoke His grace by communing with Him in the prayer room each day and on special occasions.

Each room in a house is dedicated to a specific function like the bedroom for resting, the drawing room to receive guests, the kitchen for cooking etc. The furniture, decor and the atmosphere of each room are made conducive to the purpose it serves. So too for the purpose of meditation, worship and prayer, we should have a conducive atmosphere - hence the need for a prayer room.


Sacred thoughts and sound vibrations pervade the place and influence the minds of those who spend time there. Spiritual thoughts and vibrations accumulated through regular meditation, worship and chanting done there pervade the prayer room. Even when we are tired or agitated, by just sitting in the prayer room for a while, we feel calm, rejuvenated and spiritually uplifted.
 
Nice.

The spacing or organizing of space serves a purpose. To pray in the heart, do japam, sing a bhajan, or just contemplate on god, i think such things can be done anywhere. Some ppl do japam in the living room. Or any room. And so do i.
 
it is ultimately the mind

The pooja room in most of the houses are set to please our mind set only . We take bath and feel fresh and the body again gets dirt, cleansing the mind is best way taking a bath for the body, in such circumstances without even taking a bath you may feel always fresh.

Not only our house pooja rooms , even the temples are built the way that suites your mind set . You build a temple put the God into a small sanctum sanctorum and put restrictions for entry and collect money for dharshan and allow VVIP treatments , all these things are our own making . God prevails everywhere is a different thing. Whatever the mind feels we are doing to keep it calm .

When Atman stood as huge fire and later become a cool hill of Arunachala( அயனும் மாலும் அறிய முடியா ) , then Gouthama Rishi asks the Lord , if you stand like this as a big hill how people who like to do pooja and aarthi and abhishekam to you can do that , for such people the way of worship satisfy them by only doing that way . Give us a soultion says the Rishi. Then the Lord dictates how a temple can be built in Arunachalam giving full details of its supposed structure and the temple was built to satisfy most of the minds . Our system allows all type of practices and recognize them also as a means of attaining HIM . No rigidity .

That way house also having a pooja room and some people keep it as big as possible and some keep as small as possible.
 
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Pooja room is like a mini temple. Right from entering the room, we always respect the room with its sanctity. It is the most holy place within the house.

All the best
 
As Akura ha pointed out separate prayer room is only the mind set of people.This also is proportional to the financial capacity of the owner of the house .

But lesser capable persons also keep also try to keep a segregated portion in their home for keeping pictures of god/goddess, lighting lamp etc. This is because the mind is having a fixation of a temple(or any place of worship) is the best place topray,and try to replicate the same in possible way at home

But for those who will not be able to concntrate on prayer, a separate prayer room /prayer corner helps.

The dhyanamandapam at Vivekananda Rock Memorial in Kanyakumari is an excellent example for the good effects of a separate secluded prayer room, though not comparable fully.
 
Dear All,
Namaskarams,
In my humble opinion, Pooja Room in every house is a must. But looking to present day living condition, whether it is possible for all to have a separate pooja room? Nowadays, plople live in two room kitchen or even single room kitchen type flats/houses. Here, to have a separate room for pooja may not be possible. Here, people will satisfy with a small almirah in one room or in the hall itself and medidate before the two/three pictures kept in that almirah. As the life is becoming a mechanical type, just stand before the almirah, close your eyes for a minute and run to the dining table for food and catch the bus for office and so on.. the life goes on like this. The days where people sit leisurely and do an elongated pooja and not be seen nowadays. It is in your heart. So forget about a sleparate room for the God and keep HIM in your heart and let HIS name be in your lips/tongue. That is enough. You are a blessed one in this world.
Jai SRIRAM!!

Yours
 
A very nice discussion and some excellent view-points here. But, there is also a very subtle under-current of 'this is right, that is wrong' in some expressions.

As GOD him/herself has many forms, so can many ways of forms/places/methods of prayer exist.

A large Prayer room, most lavioushly fitted out, with N number of pictures of God could either mean that the person who put it together is quite rich and has the intention to display his 'devotion' or also mean that the person is really devoted to God. The point is - these are not any pointers to the actual thing: devotion to God.

Whether in a seperate room, or in an almirah, or in just a small wall-hanging picture, it should not matter, as far as the devotion is full and total.

My humble 2cents.

Sridhar
 
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